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Packed lunches arent just for the kids. We look at healthy, quick and delicious ways to bring your lunch from home, with inspirations and recipes from the sandwich experts at Pret, straight from the new Pret
Food On The Move book.
We hear a lot about healthy packed lunches for kids - but what about the grown-ups?
In these days when the average office lunch consists of a quick bite at your desk, its time to tempt workers with some tasty ideas to spice up sandwiches or add sparkle to salads.
First stop should be your fridge. In an age when we waste so much food - a recent government study revealed households dump just under a third of all the food they buy - surely some of it could be made into a tasty lunch, saving money and the environment.
Leftover meat from Sunday roasts can be packed into tasty wraps or baguettes, half-eaten dips stuffed into pitta breads with the remainders of raw or roasted veg and delicious soups can be made from virtually any vegetable thats starting to wither, packed into a flask and then taken
to work.
Cookery writer Jane Lunzer Gifford has now teamed up with the sandwich experts at Pret to bring us Pret Food On The Move, a book to give workers some mouth-watering inspiration for the ideal packed lunch.
There are certain potentially delicious items to look out for on fridge raids, she says.
A few desultory roasted veg? Mix with humous and finely chopped spring onions on toasted ciabatta.
Even leftover stews can make a tasty office lunch if you remove the cold fat first, she offers.
Lamb casserole meat will be delicious and can be combined with redcurrant jelly and some watercress salad on a chunky wholemeal loaf.
If you have smoked salmon trimmings, add a little mustard, a pinch of sugar, a teaspoon each of vinegar and creme fraiche and some dill and pile it between two slices of brown bread - you wont be disappointed.
Even the tired remains of a once-crisp salad can be used because, with the dressing thoroughly absorbed, they will still taste good with some crusty white bread, she says.
Basics you can make yourself to add flavour to your sandwiches, and which will keep in a sealed jar, include pesto, sweet chilli dressing and home-made pickle, while cupboard essentials to liven up the lunchbox could include anchovy fillets, horseradish, eggs, olives, mustard, olive oil, redcurrant jelly, tuna and Worcester sauce.
If you fancy a salad for lunch, Gifford says not to add dressing until you are about to eat. And if salad is to include cooked ingredients like bacon, chicken or hard-boiled egg, make sure they are cold before
putting them anywhere near the leaves.
Make dressings out of guacamole or humous or blend some blue cheese with French dressing and you will create new flavours for regular salads.
Still stuck for inspiration? Try these lunchbox ideas from Pret for a few tasty treats.
CHAR-GRILLED PEPPER BAGUETTE
1/2 baguette
45g garlic and herb cream cheese (Boursin or similar)
1/2 chargrilled pepper
1 handful rocket leaves
Cut the baguette almost in half lengthways (leaving one edge still attached) and spread the cream cheese over the bottom half. Arrange the peppers on top. Stuff the leaves in a heap into the far corners and all over the topping. Cover with the top half of the baguette, pressing down gently to keep everything in place.
JALAPENO CHICKEN HOT WRAP
1 tortilla wrap
1/2 cooked chicken breast, sliced
4 slow-roasted tomato quarters
1tsp chopped pickled green jalapeno chilli
2 slices red pepper
10 fine green beans, cooked in boiling water for 2 minutes
squirt of tomato ketchup
salt and coarse-ground black pepper
2 slices Greve, Emmenthal or Gruyere cheese
Preheat the oven to 200C (400F/Gas 6). Place the wrap flat on a surface. Arrange the chicken pieces over one half of the wrap. Top with the tomato pieces, jalapeno, red pepper and beans. Squirt some ketchup across the centre of the wrap and season with salt and pepper. Finish with the cheese slices and roll the wrap across the filling and tightly into a long cigar.
To wrap the tortilla in paper, take one piece of greaseproof paper big enough to cover the whole wrap and turn in the sides.
Do the same rolling technique as when filling the wrap but with the sides turned in to make it more like an envelope (to stop the filling from wandering out when it is warm and runny). Tie kitchen string round
the middle, if possible including the turned-in edges.
Put in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Take out and tear the paper from around one end so that you can eat the hot spicy chicken like a lollipop.
WILD RICE AND SALMON SALAD
(serves 2)
250g wild rice, cooked and chilled (or a mixture of wild and long-grain
white rice)
200g salmon, cooked, chilled and broken into flakes
masses of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 limes, juice and zest
salt and coarse-ground black pepper
huge handful of finely chopped spring onion
300ml single (whipping) cream
Gently combine all the ingredients, leaving the cream until the very last. The flavour of the lime will be absorbed quickly and you may find you need to add a little more for the taste to come through. Dont stint on the black pepper.
LIQUID NEWS
:: A cuppa is the office drink of choice, but you neednt limit your choice to builders tea with one lump or two: sip something more exotic alongside your homemade lunch with white tea. Rarer and purer than most other teas, white tea is a natural source of antioxidants and has a delicate, slightly sweet taste. Try Jacksons of Piccadillys Pure Chinese White Silvertip Tea, £1.99 for 20 teabags from Tesco, or
Twinings Pure White Tea, £1.79 for 20 teabags, from Tesco and Waitrose.
:: Work can be stressful, but if you feel your blood boiling new research from the University Hospital of Cologne suggests you should reach for foods rich in cocoa, which have been found to lower blood
pressure. Getting your cocoa hit from drinking chocolate makes more sense than loading up on fats and sugars in candy bars, so try Cocodirect, the 100% Fairtrade drinking chocolate from Cafedirect. With 40% of the purest quality cocoa solids, its available for £2.29 per 250g from major supermarkets.
:: Fancy a lunchbox treat outside the office (or just behind your boss back)? Campo Viejo have just the wine for your midday meal. Pair the fruity richness of their Campo Viejo Crianza 2004, £5.99 from Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsburys, with your home-made Char-Grilled Pepper Baguette, or the more delicate Campo Viejo Rose 2005, £4.99 from ASDA and Threshers, with a Jalapeno Chicken Hot Wrap. Or tuck into your Wild Rice. And Salmon Salad with a glass or two of the warm but lively Gran Campo
Viejo Cava, £6.99 from Sainsburys and Threshers.
:: Pret Food On The Move, by Jane Lunzer Gifford, is published by
Murdoch Books, priced £14.99. Avaiable now.
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